Chickadee

Chickadees

Black-capped chickadee 

Scientific Name: Poecile atricapillus

Carolina chickadee

Scientific Name: Poecile carolinensis

Species Profile

These woodland birds are mainly year-round residents in their breeding areas. They become most apparent in fall and winter when all four types may occasionally be seen together, along with downy woodpeckers and kinglets, in mixed-species foraging flocks. In these groupings, the greater number of eyes may improve foraging efficiency and detect potential predators. Pennsylvania’s two chickadee species and the tufted titmouse belong to Family Paridae—omnivorous feeders that cache excess seeds in holes or bark crevices, remember the locations, and return later to eat the food. The two nuthatch species are in Family Sittidae. They glean insect food from the trunks of trees and also eat nuts. Their common name derives from the way they “hack” nuts apart using their stout pointed bills. Taxonomists place the brown creeper in Family Certhiidae, a group that includes ten species, eight of which inhabit Europe and Asia and another India and Africa. The brown creeper is the only species of this family found in North America.

chickadee
Poecile atricapillus

Black-capped chickadee

A black cap and bib, buffy flanks, and a white belly mark this small (five inches long), spunky bird. Chickadees have short, sharp bills and strong legs that let them hop about in trees and cling to branches upside down while feeding. They fly in an undulating manner, with rapid wingbeats, rarely going farther than 50 feet at a time. The species ranges across northern North America, living in deciduous and mixed forests, forest edges, thickets, swamps, and wooded areas in cities and suburbs. Black-capped chickadees are common throughout Pennsylvania, except for the state’s southern counties, where they are replaced by the similar Carolina chickadee.

chickadee
Poecile carolinensis

Carolina chickadee

Similar to the black-capped chickadee in appearance and life history, this species lives in milder climates across the southeastern United States. The Carolina chickadee breeds in southern Pennsylvania, but its range has been creeping northward in recent decades. The song and calls of the Carolina chickadee differ from the black-capped chickadee which helps distinguish the two where their ranges overlap. They are extremely similar in appearance with Carolina chickadees having less white on their wings and relatively shorter tails. These species interbreed and the resultant hybrid chickadees are difficult to tell apart from their parent species. The Carolina chickadee seems to be displacing black-capped chickadees as it moves northward.